A Taste of Mongolian History: The Legend of Sukhbaatar

The provincial capital of Selenge, the name ‘Sukhbaatar’ translates to “Axe Hero”. In the center of Sukhbaatar square stands a statue of Damdin Sukhbaatar. Sukhbaatar is an important historical figure in Mongolian history, declaring Mongolia’s Independence from China in July 1921. His face dominates many currency notes and there are a number of things that bear his name: the provincial capital (aimag center) of Selenge, a providence (aimag), and a large square in the capital of UB. He was born in 1893, appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Army in 1921, and died in 1923 at the age of 30 – quite the busy guy.

One family trip was to Suhkbaatar’s grave and first work place: pictures below.

Family Trip: Саихны Хөтөл (Saihnii Hutul) National Park

Pictures say more than words.

A Mission to See Russia, Hiking

When a fellow PCT (Peace Corps Trainee; we are technically not volunteers until we officially swear-in after PST), Jason, asked me if I would be interested in going for a little hike on Saturday, I didn’t hesitate with my affirmation. This “little hike” turned out to be 2.5 hours of an uphill climb across three peaks to reach the endpoint goal of viewing Russia from the highest peak in Sukhbaatar.

Pictures from that day are below:

Countryside Ger Visit

Culture Observation: Naked Babies

Babies tend to go running around without pants or diapers here…and they breast feed till way into toddler age! And those mothers are not very shy about where they “whip it out” (e.g. crowded meekers). However, I have to say I was fairly warned during orientation days in Darkhan the first week that we arrived in country. There was a whole session (demonstrated by a full on skit) of the Mongolian custom of “eat the penis”. Basically, the idea is that they “offer” you (the guest) to “eat the penis” by either holding up the baby – privates exposed – or making a mocking gesture of ‘transferring” the penis with their hand. All in all, I think it’s a Mongolian kept secret to make foreigners feel as uncomfortable as possible (a favorite Mongolian “custom”).

The Difficulties of the Mongolian Language

Without fail, even when I nap from 8pm-midnight, when I finally emerge, my eej (mother) will ask me to bring out the current day’s language lesson and homework. Like moths to a flame, my ger buliinhen (family members) gather at the kitchen table surrounding me with their eagerness to help. Like little drill sergeants, they take turns correcting my “l-th” and “ts”. My efforts are rewarded with a happy “Sain!” (Good!) when I finally reach the correct pronunciation. Mongolian is hard. They seem disappointed when I tell them that that was it for today’s lesson; they would have me pronounce the whole English-Mongolian dictionary if I would let them.

Host Family Description

For the next ten weeks, I will be living in a four room wooden house, blue in color with an accompanying green roof. The interior of the house is decorated – from the walls to the bed and furniture to the floors – in colorful weaved rugs. Although there is electricity, there is no running water. The water is fetched, in a 15 gallon drum at a time, at the nearby well 100 meters from the house. The jorlon and a ‘sun shower’ (aka: outhouse and outshower) are outside and shared with the haashaa neighbor (haashaa = fence; some houses or gers share a common haashaa area in order to share resources, i.e. well, outshower, or garden). My room has the only bed and door in the house. The rest of the five member family sleep side-by-side on mats in the adjacent rooms.





My host dad is a telecom cable technician at the local post office. My host mom is a researcher at the nearby hospital; she has been working there for the past 27 years. My host parents are in their late-40s. I have three younger host siblings: two brothers and a sister. One brother is a recent college graduate of 23 who has moved back home in order to plan his next steps; a common move by young graduates in the States as well. The other brother is 19, attends college in UB and is working two jobs this summer for a little spending cash during the school year. My host sister is a sweet girly girl of 21 (her favorite color is pink, and she can’t go anywhere without her zebra-print heels). She, too, is a recent college graduate but her ambitions are higher; she will be going back to UB to pursue her MA and has plans of becoming a customs officer. Her ‘job’ this summer is to take care of me, a task that includes: meals at promptly 8:30am, 1:30pm and 7:30pm (times scheduled around my language and technical lessons at the nearby school) and Mongolian tutoring. My family seems wonderful and thoroughly accepting. My PST is off to a great start.

Unusual Pets

On my second night in my host community of Sukhbaatar (the aimag capital of Selenge, population 20,300), I have discovered that even though it is not common for Mongolians to take dogs in as domestic pets (guard dog duties aside), it is not unlike them have baby black bears as pets. Lead in the house with a leash like a medium-sized dog (which I thought it was at first); the bear provided hours of entertainment for the whole family. Its favorite trick was finger sucking (which I all too soon was going to discover). I wish I had captured that moment down on digital film but I was too busy trying to remember if the Peace Corps Medical Officer had said if one could or could not receive rabies from bear bites.

Farewell Toilets: Heading Out to the Host Communities

The day we left the Darkhan Hotel for our host communities, it was raining and cold. Dragging our massive suitcases, sleeping bags, water distillers, first-aid kits, and water bottles in the rain to the seven awaiting minibuses only added to our anxiety of being spilt-up among our host communities. The day before, when they had announced our host community locations (Bayangol, Dulaankhaan, and Sukhbaatar) and host families, we had compared notes ooohh-ing and awww-ing at those who had houses with an indoor toilet, vegetable garden, and/or two-story house. The actual reality was an amusing revelation. For those who had the indoor toilets (quite the luxury here in Mongolia), they did not have a shower of any kind and were forced to wash their hair in colorful tubs provided by the Peace Corps (PC). For those who had the pit toilets (aka: outhouses), there was an accompanying outdoor shower. Such quick, drastic changes makes one appreciate the little things in life such as a toilet seat and the feeling of double-ply quitted toilet paper.

Arrival into Mongolia

Sain uu!

I arrived in Ulaanbaatar (UB; the capital, translated as: Red Hero), Mongolia via a 27 hour layover in Seoul, Korea on June 4. The first night, our group of 48 Americans stayed in a tourist ger camp. The next morning was unreal: I woke up to blue skies, rolling hills, hawks, the smell of horses, and finally, the excited feeling of being in Mongolia. Lunch that day was with the US Ambassador to Mongolia, Ambassador Milton. Then we headed four hours via bus north to Darkhan (the 3rd largest city in the providence or aimag of Selenge, population 73,400), where we resided for a week for introductions and vaccination shots (16 in total;ouch) at a nearby school (pictures of the welcoming ceremony at the school are below). Afterwards, we were divided into three groups and headed off for our host communities (all located north of UB) till mid-August when we take our final LPIs (Language Proficiency Interviews), swear-in, and officially become PC (Peace Corps) volunteers. My host community is in Sukhbaatar (30 km from the Russian border). My host family are wonderful; they treat me like one of their own. Training is intense with 4 hours/5 days per week of Mongolian language classes and the other four hours per day is devoted to technical training. My biggest fear at this point is falling into the pit toilets...which I conveyed to the interim Country Director and she assures me that this has only happened once – but not in Mongolia. However, the girl survived unscathed. How this was suppose to comfort me, I don’t know.

Pre Service Training in Darkhan

27 Hour Layover in Seoul, South Korea

I write to you in Incheon, Korea – in route to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Staging introductions were made downtown Atlanta, GA for the past two days…a 27 hour layover in South Korea, two nights in a ger camp in Ulaanbaatar and a two hour van ride north later, I will arrive to the provincial center of Darkhan, where I will begin my 11 week
pre-service training.

My training group is a large group of 48: four set of married couples, two middle-age gentlemen, and 38 mid-twenties youngsters – all here for a variety of reasons. They are a great bunch and I'm excited about the prospect of getting to know them in the next two years.

I'm not in Mongolia yet but I miss you all already. Below are how I spent my layover time in Korea.

1. Korean barbecue, popular dish
2. Downtown Seoul, South Korea
3. Billiard advertisement in down Seoul
4. Gyeongbokgung, the main palace of the Joseon Dynasty; the Changing of the Guard
5. Buddhist temple, Seoul